Would love to have a "Large Text" feature

[feoh]

Prerequisites

• [ X] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates.

Feature

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

As a visually disabled user I often want to be able to select some text and display it in very large type on the screen.

Describe the solution you'd like

For example, I select a phone number in an email, hit the app launcher hotkey, choose the "Large Text" action and step away from the screen to actually make the phone call.

Existing work

Alfred on OSX has this feature, and due to the way OSX works it integrates anywhere you can select text or a text blob.

For instance, in the Contacts app, you can select a phone number, hit the Alfred hot key, and see it in very large text in the center of the screen.

Here is the description of this feature from the Alfred Site
Describe alternatives you've considered

Having this accessible from the app launcher hot key seems like a natural fit given that the launcher already has similar features like calculation mode for numbers, but I'm not married to that. Anything that would integrate with as many apps as possible given Linux/Gnome's architectural limitations (e.g. there's no AppleEvents/Open Scripting Architecture in Gnome that I know of).

Additional context

[feoh]

Looking at the other Synapse plugins there's just a chance even my puny brain might have a shot at implementing this :)

[cassidyjames]

I get that Alfred has this, but I wonder if this makes sense as an accessibility feature in Gala (our window manager), perhaps even as an extension of the existing Super+Plus/Minus zoom.

[feoh]

Like I said I am totally not married to any particular implementation. As a low vision user, I have found the ability to say "This blob of text I have selected. Make it HUGE until I hit a key" incredibly useful and empowering.

Making it part of Gala might make more sense, as then it could be used in any context.

As a separate but related question, I'd be curious about what if any future vision there is for the plugins that the app launcher offers.

[danirabbit]

Yeah I wonder if it makes more sense for this to be a feature of the a11y indicator and/or gala and/or some other daemon. I'm not sure that this is really within the scope of the applications menu.

@cassidyjames any objections to moving this to indicator-a11y?

[cassidyjames]

@danrabbit works for me

[KeironO]

I think this would be a great addition, but am struggling to comprehend how best to even start implementing such a feature - given the way in which text is generated - with only a few "things" being selectable.

[feoh]

Hi I had this same thought! That's why I initially thought about making this a plugin to the launcher like the calculator one that's already present.

Way less elegant and integrated, to be sure!

[pongloongyeat]

@feoh how would this differ from say, a magnifier app? elementary/gala has a picture-in-picture plugin that could be made use of with some tweaks (I think)

[feoh]

Elementary already does vastly better than your average magnifier app by providing superlative full screen zoom that works well.

I think I'm going to close this because unless you've used Alfred's Large Type feature you just can't grok what I'm getting at here.

Thanks!

[ryonakano]

Reading this issue I felt like developing a magnifier app for elementary OS. Not sure if it meets your request though because I've never used Alfred's Large Type.

The development happens at https://github.com/ryonakano/louper so if you're interested in feel free to submit issues, create PRs, etc. 😄

I'm going to release its first release when elementary OS 6.0 is released.